Police chief: There’s NO evidence of spiking
‘Injection’ claims dismissed
POLICE have said there is no forensic evidence to support a single case of spiking by injection in Scotland, despite a wave of reports.
As nightclubs and university campuses reopened last autumn, cases of alleged spiking surged, with many said to involve people being unwittingly injected.
But a senior detective said Police Scotland had been unable to confirm ‘any spiking by injection’ and forensic examination had found no substances linked to drink spiking in the past few months.
Between January and October last year, the force received complaints from 51 people who said they had been spiked by injection.
Many people described ‘blacking out’ before waking up with puncture marks on their backs, arms or legs. There were 69 reports of drink
‘We don’t have any identified cases’
spiking during the same period, and a further 32 cases in which the method of drugging was unclear.
Most of those who came forward were women but 22 men were also allegedly targeted.
Detective Chief Superintendent Laura McLuckie told the Scottish Police Authority: ‘I’m pleased to say that we’re not seeing any drugs within people’s systems that we would class as being a drug that would be used in spiking.
‘There is clearly alcohol involved. There is clearly recreational drug use involved.
‘However, we don’t have any identified cases of any spiking by injection in Scotland at this time.’
Katy MacLeod, of the Scottish Drugs Forum, said: ‘It is important to highlight that one of the effects of traumatic incidents on the brain is that they can impair our ability to file memories, which can bring in significant challenges for people reporting and gathering evidence.
‘It is fairly common that people report incidents a number of days or longer afterwards, which would make detection of substances challenging given some substances are out of the system within 24 hours.’
A small number of injecting incidents have been confirmed by other forces in the UK.
Gary Ritchie, Assistant Chief Constable at Police Scotland, said: ‘Every report is and will be taken seriously and fully investigated, and that will include a full forensic investigation when appropriate.’
On October 11, a 19-year-old in Nottingham said she was ‘spiked by a needle’ on a night out. Soon after, students in Edinburgh began sharing stories on Instagram of ‘blacking out’ and waking up with injectionlike puncture wounds. Within days, there were reports from cities across Scotland and much of the UK.
It provoked a Girls Night In boycott of nightclubs and bars by students on October 28.
Police Scotland said it appeared the rise in reports had ‘come about as a result of the media and social media attention that it was given at that time’.